Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer<\/em> No. 37, your guide to the best and Verge<\/em>-iest stuff in the world. (If you\u2019re new here, welcome, send me links, and also, you can read all the old editions at the Installer<\/em> homepage<\/a>.)\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This week, I\u2019ve been writing about iPads<\/strong><\/a> and LinkedIn games<\/strong><\/a>, reading about auto shows<\/strong><\/a> and typewriters<\/strong><\/a> and treasure hunters<\/strong><\/a>, watching Everybody\u2019s in LA<\/strong><\/em><\/a> <\/em>and Sugar<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, <\/em>looking for reasons to buy Yeti\u2019s new French press<\/strong><\/a> even though I definitely don\u2019t need more coffee gear, following almost all of Jerry Saltz\u2019s favorite Instagram accounts<\/strong><\/a>, <\/strong>testing Capacities<\/strong><\/a> and Heptabase<\/strong><\/a> for all my note-taking needs and Plinky<\/strong><\/a> for all my link-saving, and playing a lot of Blind Drive<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I also have for you a thoroughly impressive new iPad, a clever new smart home hub, a Twitter documentary to watch this weekend, a sci-fi show to check out, a cheap streaming box, and much more. Let\u2019s do it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n (As always, the best part of Installer<\/em> is your ideas and tips. What are you reading \/ watching \/ cooking \/ playing \/ building right now? What should everyone else be into as well? Email me at installer@theverge.com<\/a> or find me on Signal at @davidpierce.11. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, <\/em>and tell them to subscribe here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Kylie Robison<\/strong><\/a>, The Verge<\/em>\u2019s <\/em>new senior AI reporter, tweeted a video of her old iPhone<\/a> the other day that was like a perfect time capsule of a device. She had approximately 90,000 games, including a bunch that I\u2019m 100 percent sure were scams, and that iPod logo in her dock made me feel a lot of things. Those were good days.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I messaged Kylie in Slack roughly eight minutes after she became a Verge <\/em>employee, hoping I could convince her to share her current homescreen \u2014 and what she\u2019d been up to during her funemployment time ahead of starting with us.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Sadly, she says she tamed her homescreen chaos before starting, because something something professionalism, or whatever. And now she swears she can\u2019t even find a screenshot of her old homescreen! SURE, KYLIE. <\/em>Anyway, here\u2019s Kylie\u2019s newly functional homescreen, plus some info on the apps she uses and why.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The phone: <\/strong>iPhone 14 Pro Max.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The wallpaper: <\/strong>A black screen because I think it\u2019s too noisy otherwise. (My lock screen is about 20 revolving photos, though.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The apps: <\/strong>Apple Maps, Notes, Spotify, Messages, FaceTime, Safari, Phone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I need calendar and weather apps right in front of me when I unlock my phone because I\u2019m forgetful. I use Spotify for all things music and podcasts.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Work is life so I have all those apps front and center, too (Signal, Google Drive, Okta).\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Just before starting, I reorganized my phone screen because 1) I had time and 2) I knew I\u2019d have to show it off for David. All the apps are sorted into folders now, but before, they were completely free-range because I use the search bar to find apps; I rarely scroll around. So just imagine about 25 random apps filling up all the pages: Pegasus for some international flight I booked, a random stuffed bell pepper recipe, what have you.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I also asked Kylie to share a few things she\u2019s into right now. Here\u2019s what she shared:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Here\u2019s what the <\/em>Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you\u2019re into right now as well! Email <\/em>installer@theverge.com<\/em><\/a> or hit me up on Signal \u2014\u00a0I\u2019m @davidpierce.11 \u2014\u00a0with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we\u2019ll feature some of our favorites here every week. And if you want even more recommendations, check out the replies to <\/em>this post on Threads<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI have always found Spotify\u2019s recommendation algorithm and music channels to be terrible; wayyy too much fussing and tailoring required when all I want is to hit play and get a good diversity of music I will like. So I finally gave up and tried Pandora<\/strong><\/a> again. Its recommendation \/ station algorithm is so wildly better than Spotify\u2019s (at least for me), it\u2019s shocking how it has seemed to fade into cultural anonymity. Can\u2019t speak for others, but if anyone out there is similarly frustrated with Spotify playlists, I highly recommend the Pandora option.\u201d \u2013\u00a0Will<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cEverything coming out of Netflix Is a Joke Fest<\/strong><\/a> has been 10\/10.\u201d \u2013\u00a0Mike<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cMantella<\/strong><\/a> mod for Skyrim<\/em> (and Fallout 4<\/em>). Not so much a single mod, but a mod plus a collection of apps that gives (basically) every NPC their own lives and stories. It\u2019s like suddenly being allowed to participate in the fun and games with Woody and Buzz, rather than them having to say the words when you pull the string.\u201d \u2013\u00a0Jonathan<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe Snipd<\/strong><\/a> podcast app (whose primary selling point is AI transcription of podcasts and the ability to easily capture, manage, and export text snippets from podcasts) has a new feature that shows you a name, bio, and picture for podcast guests, and allows you to find more podcasts with the same guest or even follow specific guests. Pretty cool!\u201d \u2013 Andy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI have recently bought a new Kindle, and I\u2019m trying to figure out how to get news on it! My current plan is to use Omnivore<\/strong><\/a> as my bookmarks app, which will sync with this awesome community tool that converts those bookmarks into a Kindle-friendly website<\/strong><\/a>.\u201d \u2013\u00a0David<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cTurtles All the Way Down<\/strong><\/em><\/a>! Great depiction of OCD.\u201d \u2013 Saad<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWith all the conversation around Delta on iOS, I have recently procured and am currently enamored with my Miyoo Mini Plus<\/strong><\/a>. It\u2019s customizable and perfectly sized, and in my advanced years with no love for Fortnite<\/em>, PUBG<\/em>, or any of the myriad of online connected games, it\u2019s lovely to go back and play some of these \u2018legally obtained\u2019 games that I played in my childhood.\u201d \u2013\u00a0Benjamin<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cRusty\u2019s Retirement<\/strong><\/em><\/a> is a great, mostly idle farm sim that sits at the bottom or the side of your monitor for both Mac and Windows. Rusty just goes and completes little tasks of his own accord while you work or do other stuff. It rocks. Look at him go!\u201d \u2013\u00a0Brendon<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cLast week, Nicholas talked about YACReader and was asking for another great comic e-reader app for DRM-free files. After much searching myself, I settled on Panels<\/strong><\/a> for iPad. Great Apple-native UI, thoughtful features, and decent performance. The free version can handle a local library, but to unlock its full potential, the Pro version (sub or lifetime) supports iCloud, so you can keep all your comics in iCloud Drive, manage the files via a Mac, and only download what you\u2019re currently reading \u2014 great for lower-end iPads with less storage.\u201d \u2013\u00a0Diogo<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I have spent so much time <\/em>over the years trying to both figure out and explain to people the basics of a camera. There are a billion metaphors for ISO, shutter speed, and aperture, and all of them fall short. That\u2019s probably why a lot of the photographer types I know have been passing around this very fun depth of field simulator<\/strong><\/a> over the last few days, which lets you play with aperture, focal length, sensor size, and more in order to understand how different settings change the way you take photos. It\u2019s a really clever, simple way to see how it all works \u2014 and to understand what becomes possible when you really start to control your camera. I\u2019ll be sharing this link a lot, I suspect, and I\u2019m learning a lot from it, too.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nThe Drop<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
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Screen share<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
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Crowdsourced<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Signing off<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n